“White-knuckle tale of jealousy and murder” shrieks the press release. Well, it’s a fair way to describe Shakespeare’s Othello. Especially a production which has earned a clutch of excellent reviews on its UK national tour.

Finbar Lynch plays Iago in the Greenwich Theatre's Othello

Rupert Goold’s production has its London opening at the Greenwich Theatre on Nov. 4. He updates the action to World War II, with Othello a black American GI. Ron Cephas Jones returns to the city in the title-role after his triumph last year in Jesus Hopped The A-Train in the Donmar Warehouse’s American season. Another Donmar veteran, Finbar Lynch (To The Green Fields And Beyond), plays Iago with Kate Fleetwood as Desdemona. Goold’s recent London productions include Sunday Father at the Hampstead Theatre and the Pete Postlethwaite-starrer Scaramouche Jones which has this year toured to Australia and New Zealand.

This Othello will be followed by another high-profile production of the play next year, when the Royal Shakespeare Company revive it. Their cast will include RSC associate actor Antony Sher as Iago, with South African Sello Maake ka Ncube making his company debut.